Posted by Joshua on Friday, April 23rd, 2010

U.S. national-security officials say they have no confirmation of Israeli claims that Syria has delivered or is in the process of delivering new, longer-range Scud missiles to the radical Lebanese Shiite group Hizbullah. Although Syria may have begun making preparations to do so, U.S. intelligence reporting indicates that no such shipments have actually occurred, two senior U.S. officials tell Declassified, requesting anonymity when discussing sensitive information. According to the officials, the U.S. government’s assessment is that Israelis’ public complaints were a ploy to deter the Syrians from going ahead with the deliveries—a strategy that’s working so far, the U.S. government believes….

… Asked whether U.S. government experts believe that Israel made a fuss about the alleged missile shipments—and exaggerated how far the Syrians had gone—in order to send Damascus a message against carrying out the transfer, a senior Obama administration official says simply: “Yes.” And Damascus appears to have heeded the warning, the official confirms. Another senior U.S. official cites Israel’s September 2007 airstrike against a suspected but uncompleted Syrian nuclear facility. In the opinion of many U.S. experts, the official says, Israel’s military would have already taken action to neutralize the threat if there were hard evidence that Hizbullah had obtained Scuds”

“It’s important to make the case to Syria why the path they’re on is so dangerous,” Feltman said. “Syria is not Iran,” he said, noting that Syria is a secular state and that the Obama administration doesn’t see the Syria-Iran alliance as immutable. Citing “growing rapprochement” between Syria and Saudi Arabia, Feltman said, “the Syrians try to hedge their bets.” It’s in the interests of U.S. allies, including Israel, Iraq and Lebanon, that the U.S. improves relations with Syria in an effort to change its behavior.

“…While the United States suspects some kind of transfer may have occurred in Syria, two U.S. officials said there were “no indications” any Scud rockets were transported into Lebanon, which would sharply escalate the risk of a conflict.

“We don’t think Scuds of any shape or size have been moved to Lebanon,….. in this case, surely they (the Syrians) realize that transferring this kind of weapons system to Hezbollah — and especially to Hezbollah in Lebanon — could lead to serious consequences,” the official added….

U.S. officials voiced confidence that Scuds crossing the Syrian-Lebanese border would be detected. The large rockets cannot be readily broken down into small parts for transport, the officials said…”

“U.S. officials said Mr. Netanyahu’s government has been communicating much of its position through the White House’s senior Middle East adviser Dennis Ross, at times bypassing special Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell. That decision has been interpreted by some in the administration as an attempt to sideline Mr. Mitchell in favor of Mr. Ross, who has advocated U.S. cooperation with Mr. Netanyahu, rather than confrontation. Mr. Ross has publicly taken positions in line with Mr. Netanyahu’s government, particularly the centrality of stopping Iran’s nuclear program as a means to underpin Mideast peace efforts.”

At a nixon center lunch today, Martin Indyk (who was the featured guest along with Sam Lewis), said that Obama and Netanyahu see the ME peace-Iran linkage in opposite ways: Obama sees progress in the peace process was vital in the confrontation with Iran, while Bibi saw confronting Iran as giving him the leeway to make progress in the peace process.

After remarks with Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet today, Secretary Clinton took questions from the press. In response to a question about Syria, the Secretary said:

“[W]e have expressed directly to the Syrian Government, including calling in the representative of their embassy in Washington to express in the strongest possible terms, our concerns about these stories that do suggest there has been some transfer of weapons technology into Syria with the potential purpose of then later transferring it to Hezbollah inside Lebanon.

“I think that the larger question as to what the United States will do with respect to Syria is one we’ve spent a lot of time considering and debating inside the Administration. Where we are as of today is that we believe it is important to continue the process to return an ambassador. This is not some kind of reward for the Syrians and the actions that they take, which are deeply disturbing not only to the United States and not just to Israel but to others in the region and beyond. But it’s a tool. It’s a tool that we believe can give us extra leverage, added insight, analysis, information with respect to Syria’s actions and intentions.

“We would like to have a more balanced and positive relationship with Syria, as do other of its neighbors from Egypt to Saudi Arabia. We would like to see Syria play a more constructive role and engage in an effort to resolve its outstanding conflict with Israel. We would like to see Syria refrain from interfering in and potentially destabilizing theGovernment of Lebanon. So we have a long list of areas that we have discussed with the Syrians, and we intend to continue pushing our concerns.”

WASHINGTON — Syria is providing a “wider array” of missiles to Hezbollah, a US diplomat said Friday, stopping short of accusing Damascus of supplying Scuds to the Lebanese Shiite militia.”We are concerned with the broadening nature of cooperation between Syria and Hezbollah,” said a senior State Department official, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Damascus is “providing a wider array of missiles to Hezbollah,” the diplomat added, but refused to accuse Syria of delivering the high-grade weapons to Hezbollah.

Read the Secretary’s remarks to the press or more about the her travel to Estonia, where she is attending the NATO Informal Foreign Ministerial April 22-23 and meeting with senior Estonian officials to discuss our bilateral relationship.

“… The partnership between Saudi Arabia and China is part of a broader strategy by the world’s largest oil exporter to tap Asian markets and extend global influence. It also helps Saudi Arabia reduce reliance on the U.S., which since World War II has protected Saudi security in return for stable oil supplies, said Ben Simpfendorfer, Hong Kong-based chief China economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland Plc.

“China’s rise has provided Saudi Arabia with an excuse to knock on Washington’s door and to say, you are not our only partner,” he said…”

“…At the same time that is happening, there is prosperity with the more moderate Palestinian Authority in the west bank, and Hamas in Gaza is being squeezed and people there are doing very badly. Not only because Israel has blocked off the border and not let anything into Gaza, and I support Israel in doing that, and it may be tough on the Palestinian people, but when they vote for Hamas they are going to have to suffer the consequences.”

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Comments (43)

normansaid:

It looks like any improvement of relation between Syria and the US is conditional on Syria’s surrender , the members of congress do not seem to understand that Syria will do everything it can to get the Golan including Arming Hezbollah and seeking nuclear technology and as long as the US is arming Israel to the teeth , one might consider the US as accessory to murders committed by Israel ,

The resolution, drafted by U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., calls for strict enforcement of sanctions and other diplomatic repercussions due to allegations that Damascus provided Lebanese Islamist group Hezbollah with long-range Scud missiles from Iran.

“This transfer of these highly lethal weapons … endangers American as well as Israeli lives, destabilizes the Middle East and is an existential threat â€¨to Israel and the independence of Lebanon,” Engel said in a statement.

He urged U.S. President Barack Obama to reconsider naming an ambassador to Syria and “enforce all existing sanctions against Syria.

Kirk, a U.S. Navy reserve intelligence officer, said he was deeply concerned by allegations that Syria provided Hezbollah with missiles capable of hitting targets in Israel.

“Once again, we see that Syria and Iran have no desire to control their military arsenals and will transfer any weapon they own to terrorists,” he said. “We must protect our democratic allies by stepping up pressure on the Syrianâ€¨ regime and enforcing existing sanctions.”

Both Syria and Lebanon’s Western-backed prime minister have denied the allegations.

Don’t Arabs care about their Iraqi brothers and sisters ?
How can the absolute Arab silence and the total Arab indifference towards this slaughter, be explained?
If I was an Iraqi, I would have been ashamed to be an Arab today.
.

Syria and the Syrian people care , they opened their houses to 1.5 million Iraqi and provided free education and health care with no assistant from anybody especially the US that rewarded Syria with more sanctions , that 1.5 million Iraqi in 20 million Syria is equal to 20 million refugees in the US , can you what would have happened to the US , there would have been riots in the US calling for their deportation ,

KSA , the main supplier for AL Qaeda , built a fence to prevent Iraqis from entering the kingdom while Syria let them in without visas or passports ,
In my humble opinion KSA is the Abscess that is infecting the body and to cure the patient we have to drain the abscess, and destroy the Hornet nest ,

All of all i agree with you ,anybody who helps AL Qaeda is not an Arab that i can be proud of ,

Amir,
Your point is well taken. What’s happening in Iraq is sick. It’s horrible and it is a disgrace. Words are incapable of explaining the sorrows of the Iraqi people.

This slaughter is called a civil war and nothing short of it. The sad reality is that it happens and and many nations experienced it – including the US.

Civil wars rage in all continents of the world under different pretexts – mainly people clinging to one word of God over another.

Arabs were not silent. Syria, for example, happily took in over one million Iraqi refugees. They are offered shelter, access to health care, education, and employment. Syrian families opened their homes and wallets to their Iraqi refugees brothers and sisters. Of particular pain to me as a Muslim is what happened to the Iraqi Christians who fled the country in droves. Iraqi Christians are a thread of the Iraqi fabric

But when people decide to fight one another in a civil war, it’s hard for others to get involved directly – Even the US couldn’t stop it. Sad indeed.

Mr. Netanyahu and his neocon allies are war criminals. The Iraq war and its casualties today are a direct outcome of Netanyahu’s evil plans, no matter which Al-Qaeda murderers commit the actual crimes. The Iraq war was Netanyahu’s baby and he and his allies in Washington worked hard to get that war started. They (and Saddam) are the ones mostly responsible for all the dead Iraqis.

Here is a quote from “Clean Break” in case you forgot:

“Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq ― an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right ― as a means of foiling Syria’s regional ambitions.”

This criminal manipulation of the region that destroyed Iraq will be remembered by the Iraqi people adn right wing Israelis will realize what it meant to mess up with that country for their own selfish interests…

Why am I saying this again? … because your mass criminal prime minister is still pushing everyone in Washington to go after Iran this time. Here is something from the WSJ article above:

“…while Bibi saw confronting Iran as giving him the leeway to make progress in the peace process”

The criminal is after more blood … he does not mind another million Iranians (and American soldiers) dead only so that he can be in a position to impose something close to a peace-for-peace settlement on the Palestinians and Syrians and help Israel keep parts of the occupied Arab territories for itself.

What are you thinking now Amir? … you want to remind me of Hama? … it had 100 times less casualties, it took place only once 30 years ago, and it was imposed on the Syrian regime, the conflict with the brotherhood was not planned like the Iraq war was planned and like the Iran war will be planned when the sanctions will surely fail.

And just to clarify, I am not blaming “the Jews” (in case Akbar Palace shows up) … American Jews opposed the Iraq war. I am blaming the criminal right wing extremists leading Israel and their right wing neocon allies in the United States.

Unfortunately we only have 2 years left until President Obama is out and Sarah Palin is in … if Israeli extremists and their plans are not clearly confronted today, another million crimes will be committed (by many sides) in a war that will be started by Israel’s master planners of mass murders.

Alex said “They (and Saddam) are the ones mostly responsible for all the dead Iraqis”

I can’t agree more.

But again and again, Nothing justifies what some syrians did to their fellow syrians 30 years ago in Hama ( let alone the repression that followed for 20 years). Alex said “The conflict was imposed on the regime” well maybe( since some argue that authoritarian regimes promotes radicalism) but no one imposed on them to kill 15,000 syrians in the process and in few days.

Al-Qaeda is everything it is and everything it is not. No one knows for sure who is bank rolling Al-Qaeda. No one knows for sure whether these terrorist are human eugenics projects. I have posted numerous documentation on mind control and manipulation techniques practiced by various agencies on SC.

I don’t think it is as simple as Alex states: “Civil War”. What I do know for sure is that the perpetrators are definitely not Muslims, as a true Muslim (heart, mind and soul) will not commit such violent acts voluntarily. So, being an Arab, no I am not ashamed because the people commiting such violence are not my people.

Amir: Are you ashamed of the mass murder, the hosting of the largest prison camp in the world and the destruction of Palestinians that takes place daily?

Syria’s mobilization to help and to assist the Iraqi refugees is really extraordinary and touching. I saw the BBC program about the Syrian education system, that showed this young Iraqi refugee, how he’s (and many others) getting free education in Syria, with the help also of UN agencies. Syria acted admirably.
This is though, dealing with the consequences, and not with the problem itself.

What bothers me, is that whenever there’s something happening in Gaza or in the west-bank, you see Arab capitals exploding with protest and anger, and when this carnage is taking place in Iraq, and beyond, there’s silence and indifference.

Alex & Husam,

You do what Arabs always do. Husam, you’re in a state of denial. “…perpetrators are definitely not Muslims” ?? So who are they? In order to deal with a problem, you need first to realize and admit that there’s a problem. It’s time to change this Arab atitude of denial and repression, which did not do you any good, so far.

And you Alex blame everything on others. Which is a typical Arab and an Eduard Saidian thing to do. What is your responsibility in all this?

***

I don’t remember if any one linked to Aaron David Miller’s ‘The False Religion of Mideast Peace’.

Most all Arabs would be disgusted not to mention ashamed to have parasites like you. You are part of a select few that are proudly represented by the likes of this criminal murderer**
.
Lesley Stahl, speaking of US sanctions against Iraq:
“We have heard that. 500,000 Irai children have died. I mean,
that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And — and you know, is
the price worth it?”

Bryan Fischer, who serves as Director of Issue Analysis for Government and Public Policy at the American Family Association, today wrote on his blog that, ” America’s military is run by “Fundamentalist Muslims and homosexual activists.”

Must have been referring to Gates, Mullen, Petraeus and their Commander in Chief in the Wite House.

Next the USA media and fringe groups will be blaiming you know who for volcano eruptions, earthquakes, climate change.

Yes, of course we all admit there is a problem, but what is the root cause of the problem, and who caused it? It has nothing to do with denial. In case you missed my previous recent post: Al-Qaeda is a hoax, the Mujahadeen was created by ultra-zionist and Obama’s master Brezenski and Jimmy Carter (see Mujahadeen saluting Brezenski here 1-minute extract clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhFleLinwEM)

Everyone here on SC and 99% of Arabs condone these acts. Do you selectively read comments? You are twisting my comment because you are the run-of-the-mill blinded Israeli. I never said they are not muslims, meaning as a real muslim (heart, mind and soul) will not commit such acts. You see, you clipped my comment and took it out of context…just like all anti-semites Islamophobes do when they misquote the Quran. So Amir, it seems your thoughts and tongue are twisted.

Why did you not address my question to you about the daily killing machine in Israel, largest prison camp in the world….etc? Aren’t you in denial? Your silence shows your arrogance. Mr. Amir-sword-on-hand, I never forgot your comments which seem to spew and thrive on conflict, blood and hatred. One of your last quote, you said: “I am not scared of war”… Amir, will you come out and fight a war without American Military aid or patriot missiles? I think not.

It was the Jews with their international affiliations and their hereditary flair for finance who were best able to seize such opportunities…They did so with such effect that, even in November 1938, after five years of anti-Semitic legislation and persecution, they still owned, according to the Times correspondent in Berlin, something like a third of the real property in the Reich [my emphasis].

Most of it came into their hands during the inflation…Buying four storey apartments for 20 pounds sterling ( equiv. to $50 US dollars) But to those who had lost their all, this bewildering transfer seemed a monstrous injustice. After prolonged sufferings they had now been deprived of their last possessions.

They saw them pass into the hands of strangers, many of whom had not shared their sacrifices and who cared little or nothing for their national standards and traditions…

The Jews obtained a wonderful ascendancy in politics, business and the learned professions [in spite of constituting] less than one percent of the population [my emphasis]…

The banks, including the Reichsbank and the big private banks, were practically controlled by them. So were the publishing trade, the cinema, the theatres and a large part of the press — all the normal means, in fact, by which public opinion in a civilized country is formed…

The largest newspaper combine in the country with a daily circulation of four millions was a Jewish monopoly…

Every year it became harder and harder for a gentile to gain or keep a foothold in any privileged occupation [my emphasis]. … At this time it was not the ‘Aryans’ who exercised racial discrimination. It was a discrimination that operated without violence. It was exercised by a minority against a majority.

There was no persecution, only elimination. … It was the contrast between the wealth enjoyed — and lavishly displayed — by aliens of cosmopolitan tastes, and the poverty and misery of native Germans, that has made anti-Semitism so dangerous and ugly a force in the new Europe.

The question all Americans must ask themselves does not this image mirror the USA today? Tea Parties, etc,. etc,. Without having to mention all the wars in Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan threats to Syria and the incessant demands to nuke Iran at the demands of Israel.

SC bloggers, I wouldn’t jump to conclusion and sucumb in accepting shame for what is going on in Iraq without knowing the truth. This is a trap!

Amir:

Perhaps the Arabs we should be so ashamed of in Iraq are Israeli Mossad operatives or assets!?

Operationally, leading to the U.S. inducement to invade Iraq, 100-plus Israeli Mossad agents had been operating in Mosul for more than a decade. Soon after the American invasion, several moderate clerics were murdered. Their elimination enhanced the capacity to provoke a conflict-of-opposites between long-warring Shias and Sunnis. Who controls the minds of a few dozens tent-dwellers-turned-terrorist? Can anyone say for sure? Perhaps Allah? Or, 72-Virgins?

No less than 200 Israeli Mossad Agents arrested in the US just after 9/11 reported by Fox news had these so-called “ARABS” on surveillance through Amdocs Inc (Israeli owned company in the US that monitors every phone call made from, to and within the US) of course everything was classified information. The truth is much, much heavier than that.

For Amir to succeed requires both deceit and denial of facts. That is bait and switch tactics. How else can anyone explain the enduring world perception that Israel is a democracy? Even to this day, a majority of Americans believe that Israel is an ally despite more than six decades of nonstop deceit, spying, treachery and ongoing treason. This in itself is proof that the expansionist agenda is real, why else would they wage war by deception?

And, anytime, anyone brings up the Jewish influence, control, and power over Washington s/he is labelled a racist or a self-hating-jew.

“And you Alex blame everything on others. Which is a typical Arab and an Eduard Saidian thing to do. What is your responsibility in all this? ”

Amir, to a large degree I blame corruption in Syria on “the regime”. I blame mismanagement almost entirely on “the regime”, and until recently I blamed the high rate of smoking in Syria on “the regime” which did not seem to be doing anything about it.

But I do not blame the regime for everything Israel does only to please you. When it comes to regional policies Syria warned everyone to not play with religious fundamentalism … but they went ahead and created and armed the Mujahideen (al-Qaeda) to fight the Soviets on their behalf … then they armed and financed the Syrian Muslim brotherhood to overthrow the Syrian regime …

Syria then warned them to not support Saddam because he is a dangerous man … Syria was the ONLY one to see Saddam’s dangerous side. The Israelis, Americans, “moderate Arabs” initially supported him so that he would fight Iran’s new anti Israel Islamic leadership.

That was then … in 2003 Syria warned the Bush admin that if you start the war in Iraq it will lead to catastrophic outcomes. Dennis Ross laughed at Bashar’s prediction and Israel’s friends the neocons started to write opinion pieces asking for Syria to be next on the invasion list.

And Israel would not stop … Israeli diplomats are traveling around the globe lobbying everyone to help them destroy Iran.

You want me to take the blame for that too? If Israel succeeds (under Sarah Palin) to convince the United States to invade Iran?

Sarah has few years to learn enough talking points before she runs next time. She won’t sound like a fool next time. She will be able to fool enough people that she is knowledgeable enough.

Look … She will be portrayed as being AIPAC’s favorite. Other candidates will worry that they will have no chance unless they match Sarah’s commitment to the state of Israel. Before you know it, most candidates will promise they will move the US embassy to east Jerusalem.

At the end 50.1% of the American people will decide … last time she got very close, this time she will get 3 more percentage poins after she demonstrates how much she improved.

Hi Alex,
It is good to see you here again , i think that Georg w Bush won the first time because people felt that they were not grateful to his father and Clinton had his problem with Monica Lewinsky and people felt that he disgraced the office of the presidency , the second time president Bush won because people did not want a change in the middle of a war ,

Aipac has significant influence but mostly it is deception making policy makers scared , the think that they can do is collect money and campaign donation , most American could care less about Israel but as my father in law used to tell me when i question the American support for Israel , he used to say ,(( they never ask me about that support )), so it looks that the politicians want the money that Aipac can donate to their campaign and for that they stand by Israel wrong or right , for the Arab to have influence they need to get wealthy and donate money to their political action committees so they can make these politicians dependent on their donation , having a media outlet like a TV station owned by American of Arab origin will help explain the injustice that is imposed on the Palestinians , and American responsibility in supporting Israel in that unjust deed ,

What bothers me is that you can not see how racist comments like this are. The Arabs on this site have kicked your …. many a time intellectually, in education, in awareness, and knowledge. The rigor of the argument of most “Arabs” on this site is demonstrably superior to yours, and yet you act as a supreme pontificator. You accuse Arabs of denial while your nation has been living it every single day for decades now.

I do not feel Shame about Iraq, I feel anger that my adoptive country, the US, succumbed to the lies of a group who received orders from your capital to work incessantly towards destroying Iraq while the real instigators sat on the sidelines cheering and accusing anyone pointing to them as the real instigators of being anti-Semitic. This same small group of influential blood thirsty financiers and beneficiaries of occupation, murder, land theft, are now trying to drag the world into another mayhem only to maintain an unrealistic posture of superiority, dragging your country and mine into a bloody future and pretending to care about you, while if you simply Just track their financial interests in the war industry in your country and in my adoptive country you would be as angry as me if democracy and transparency mean anything to you. And you dare accuse me of denial.

At the same time, I feel proud that my country of origin, showed gallantry worthy of history books. These books will describe your country as the instigator of mayhem, and my place of birth as the humane good neighbor. That alone should disturb your sleep, because it will be a shameful past for your descendants to recall, or may be the infamous Israeli denial, will carry on for few more generations as it already did.

Norman: You said that Arabs should donate money or have a TV station. Some American Arabs do have big money, perhaps not as much as Rothschilds et al. However, they have no hidden agenda, no desire, and frankly the Arabs (American or non) don’t give 2 cents about funding America against any country. This notion and the american political arena are flawed.

About the TV station, I agree. But we all know what happened to Al-Jazeera when it got bombed for airing too sensitive material. They sent a message not to cross the line… so I am not sure how far you can go with that… The internet is so far the only alternative. Lets hope that doesn’t get censored.

Source close to leadership in Damascus responds to Israeli threats,
tells Kuwait newspaper Syria continuously upgrading military capabilities.
Hezbollah: We possess arms that can hit deep in Israel.

By Roee Nahmias
Yediot Aharonot

Syria has threatened to “send Israel back to the era of prehistoric man” if the Jewish state attacks it with unconventional weapons.

A source close to decision-makers in Damascus was quoted by Kuwaiti newspaper al-Rai on Saturday as saying that “If Israel uses unconventional weapons, we’ll respond in a similar fashion.”

Earlier this week, an Israeli minister told the Sunday Times that Syria would be “sent back to the Stone Age” if Hezbollah launches ballistic missiles.

The Syrian official said Damascus has upgraded its military capabilities and has prepared for a number of possible scenarios in case a war against Israel breaks out.

“Despite the fact that Syria has been outside the cycle of war since 1973, it did not sit idly by for even one day and is still working to develop its capabilities via missiles,” he was quoted by the Kuwait paper as saying.

The official said Syria has drawn lessons from Hezbollah’s “success” during the Second Lebanon War and has since then developed “advanced methods of warfare.”

‘War could break out tomorrow’

The Syrian source said Damascus’ wartime strategy is based in part on the possibility of opening a broad front against Israel – from Rosh Hanikra to the Golan Heights.

In addition, said the official, Syria is capable of launching 60 ballistic missiles deep into Israeli territory if the Jewish state will “dare to try and undermine Damascus’ sovereignty.”

“Syria can also launch 600 short-range tactical missiles into Israel in one day,” he said, while detailing plans to attack Israel’s coastline if a war breaks out.

In this framework, he said, Syrian forces would employ sea-to-surface missiles against Israeli civilian and military targets, including ports.

The official did not address claims that Syria was transferring Scud missiles to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Hezbollah political bureau member Ghaleb Abu Zainab said during an interview with NBN television on Friday that his group does not need Scud missiles to defend Lebanon.

According to Abu Zainab, Washington and Jerusalem are using their accusations of the Scud transfer to attempt to divert attention away from Israel’s “violations” in the Palestinian territories.

Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said Saturday, “We are ruling out the possibility of an imminent (Israeli) attack, but the resistance is operating under the assumption that a war could break out tomorrow – so that we will not be caught by surprise in any way.”

Another senior Hezbollah figure, Lebanese Agriculture Minister Hussein al-Hajj Hassan, said Saturday that allegations made by the US and the “Zionist enemy” regarding the Scud missile transfers are aimed at “applying pressure on Syria, Lebanon and the resistance.

You’re suggesting that I’m being led by a cabal of “financiers”,
who don’t care about me. You claim that your government is following orders from my capital, and then you accuse me of being a racist.

This who uses the term “financiers” is a racist, not me.

I’m following no one blindly. Every struggle has financial needs. The ‘Muqawama’ too is financed. Unlike others in our ME, I can dismiss those “financiers’ every 4 years, if they broke their promises to me or if they lied to me or misled me. Can you?
.

“The prohibition ‘Thou Shalt Not Murder’” applies only “to a Jew who kills a Jew,” write Rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzur of the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar. Non-Jews are “uncompassionate by nature” and attacks on them “curb their evil inclination,” while babies and children of Israel’s enemies may be killed since “it is clear that they will grow to harm us.”

“Jerusalem — The marble-patterned, hardcover book embossed with gold Hebrew letters looks like any other religious commentary you’d find in an Orthodox Judaica bookstore — but reads like a rabbinic instruction manual outlining acceptable scenarios for killing non-Jewish babies, children and adults.

“The prohibition ‘Thou Shalt Not Murder’” applies only “to a Jew who kills a Jew,” write Rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzur of the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar. Non-Jews are “uncompassionate by nature” and attacks on them “curb their evil inclination,” while babies and children of Israel’s enemies may be killed since “it is clear that they will grow to harm us.”

“The King’s Torah (Torat Hamelech), Part One: Laws of Life and Death between Israel and the Nations,” a 230-page compendium of Halacha, or Jewish religious law, published by the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva in Yitzhar, garnered a front-page exposé in the Israeli tabloid Ma’ariv, which called it the stuff of “Jewish terror.”

Now, the yeshiva is in the news again, with a January 18 raid on Yitzhar by more than 100 Israeli security officials who forcibly entered Od Yosef Chai and arrested 10 Jewish settlers. The Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency, suspects five of those arrested were involved in the torching and vandalizing of a Palestinian mosque last month in the neighboring Palestinian village of Yasuf. The arson provoked an international outcry and condemnation by Israeli religious figures, including Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, who visited the village to personally voice his regret.

Yet, both Metzger and his Sephardic counterpart, Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, have declined to comment on the book, which debuted in November, while other prominent rabbis have endorsed it — among them, the son of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Sephardic Jewry’s preeminent leader. Also, despite the precedent set by previous Israeli attorneys general in the last decade and a half to file criminal charges against settler rabbis who publish commentaries supporting violence against non-Jews, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has so far remained mum about “The King’s Torah.”

“Sometimes the public arena deals with the phenomenon and things become settled by themselves,” Justice Ministry spokesman Moshe Cohen told the Forward.

A coalition of religious Zionist groups, the “Twelfth of Heshvan,”—– named after the Hebrew date of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, has asked Israel’s Supreme Court to order Mazuz to confiscate the books and arrest its authors.

“You open the book, and you feel that you read a halachic book. And it’s a trap,” said Gadi Gvaryahu, a religious Jewish educator who heads the coalition. It was, in fact, “a guidebook [on] how to kill,” he charged.

Family members who answered phone calls placed to the homes of both authors said they did not wish to comment.

In 2008, author Shapira was suspected of involvement in a crude rocket attack directed at a Palestinian village. Israeli police investigated but made no arrests.

Co-author Elitzur wrote an article in a religious bulletin a month after the book’s release saying that “the Jews will win with violence against the Arabs.”

In 2003, the head of the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva, Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, was charged by then-Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein with incitement to racism for authoring a book calling Arabs a “cancer.”

In 2006-2007, the Israeli Ministry of Education gave about a quarter of a million dollars to the yeshiva, and in 2007-2008 the yeshiva received about $28,000 from the American nonprofit Central Fund of Israel.

“The King’s Torah” reflects a fringe viewpoint held by a minority of rabbis in the West Bank, said Avinoam Rosenak, a Hebrew University professor specializing in settler theology. Asher Cohen, a Bar Ilan University political science professor, thought its influence would be “zero” because it appeals only to extreme ideologues.

But the book’s wide dissemination and the enthusiastic endorsements of prominent rabbis have spotlighted what might have otherwise remained an isolated commentary.

At the entrance to Moriah, a large Jewish bookstore steps from the Western Wall, copies of “The King’s Torah” were displayed with children’s books and other halachic commentaries. The store manager, who identified himself only as Motti, said the tome has sold “excellently.”

Other stores carrying the book include Robinson Books, a well-known, mostly secular bookshop in a hip Tel Aviv shopping district; Pomeranz Bookseller, a major Jewish book emporium near the Ben Yehuda mall in downtown Jerusalem; and Felhendler, a Judaica store on the main artery of secular Rehovot, home of the Weizmann Institute.

The yeshiva declined to comment on publication statistics. But Itzik, a Tel Aviv-area book distributor hired by the yeshiva who declined to give his last name because of the book’s nature, said the yeshiva had sold 1,000 copies to individuals and bookstores countrywide. He said an additional 1,000 copies were now being printed.

Mendy Feldheim, owner of Feldheim Publishers, Israel’s largest Judaica publishing house, said he considered this a “nice” sales figure for a tome of rabbinic Halacha in Israel. He said his own company, which distributes to 200 bookstores nationwide, is not distributing “The King’s Torah” because the book’s publishers did not approach the company.

Prominent religious figures wrote letters of endorsement that preface the book. Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, son of former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, blessed the authors and wrote that many “disciples of Torah are unfamiliar with these laws.” The elder Yosef has not commented on his son’s statement.

Dov Lior, chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba and a respected figure among many mainstream religious Zionists, noted that the book is “very relevant especially in this time.”

Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, one of the country’s most respected rabbinic commentators, initially endorsed the book, but rescinded his approval a month after its release, saying that the book includes statements that “have no place in human intelligence.”

A handful of settler rabbis echoed Goldberg’s censure, including Shlomo Aviner, chief rabbi of Beit El and head of Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim, who said he had “no patience” to read the book, and spoke out against it to his students.

Previously, Israel has arrested settler rabbis who publish commentaries supporting the killing of non-Jews. In addition to Ginsburgh, the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva head, in 1994, the government jailed Rabbi Ido Elba of Hebron for writing a 26-page article proclaiming it a “mitzva to kill every non-Jew from the nation that is fighting the Jew, even women and children.”

“The atmosphere has changed,” said Yair Sheleg, senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute, who specializes in issues of religion and state. Previous governments took a tougher stance against such publications, he said, but “paradoxically, because the tension between the general settler population and the Israeli judicial system…is high now, the attorney general is careful not to heighten the tension.”

It is not uncommon for some settler rabbis, in the unique conditions of West Bank settlement life, to issue religious decrees, or psakim, that diverge from normative Jewish practice. In 2008, Avi Gisser, considered a moderate rabbi from the settlement of Ofra, ruled that Jews may violate Sabbath laws and hire non-Jews to build hilltop settlements. And In 2002, Yediot Aharanot reported that former Israeli Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu sanctioned Jewish harvesting of Palestinian-owned olive trees.

Have been thinking if there were ways where SC would consider having a reserved section for inviting University students from Syria to exchange views and opinions with stuents from Universities in the US, starting with the Univ. of Oklahoma if Dr.
Josh approves?

Personally I would think it would open up dialogues between the future generations in both countries and would transcend the BS emanting from the Amirs, Akbars and the like.

AP
Answer,
Not many, Israel and its IDF did not leave many friends in the region

Amir
You know well that the term financiers was qualified with the word “of occupation”, it does not have anything to do with stereotypes, it is you who is applying the knee jerk reaction and stereotyping not me.

And yes, anyone who sends money to settlers in the west bank is a financier of murder, land theft, and occupation, and should be tried in international court for supporting the terrorist settlers. And anyone who support the settlers, the expansion of settlements on a single inch of the occupied territories is a criminal and should also be tried for supporting terrorism and war crimes. If this patronizes you, so be it.

The neocons, all of whom are part and parcel of the clean break strategy, hatched in Israel by your current thug in chief, are beneficiaries of war. If it is not direct financial stocks, it is funds and finances for their so called think tank from well known wealthy individuals, with direct links to war industries.

Yes they are steeling your voice, whether you like it or not. It is a small group of Americans, who pretend to speak for the entire Jewish community both in the states and in Israel. While in Israel descent is allowed, here in the states, this group have and will continue to resort to borderline criminal tactics to silence any voice that tries to present the Jewish community in both country as anything but blood thirsty, hell bent on expansion, occupation, and destruction of one country in the middle east after another.

If you think the opinion and interests of Israelis really matters to this group, so be it, but time will show you that the Arabs, whom you belittle and patronize day in and day out, are probably better friends to you than the neocons are. To them you are a tool for a grandiose plan, not a hard working Israeli, who is interested in living a decent life, for I believe you are. But when you go uncritically parroting their accusations against every single country in your neighborhood, are you not being led?, although I did not claim you were, but thanks for bringing this point to my attention.